Paul never ceases to amaze me. His desire is to serve and proclaim Christ. His faith, trust and hope are so strong that he longs to die and be with Christ. He obviously understands Christ’s call for humility. Most people would say, hey, I started this church here in Philippi. I’m the head honcho of this church. You should build me a home and send over some servants or something. Instead, Paul is tireless in his efforts to serve and encourage the people. Paul’s mission is to proclaim Christ. To offer hope. Hope. In the world today, sometimes hope is a rare commodity. All we hear is bad news. Recession, war, jobless rates, disease, debt, divorce rates, foreclosures. It’s easy to fall into the trap of living fearfully. Where is the hope? Paul is quick to proclaim where his hope is: In Jesus Christ. I have two sons who run cross country. Man, talk about a grueling sport. For those unfamiliar with a cross country race, it is running over the hills and through the woods with no finish line in sight. At the start everyone is even, fresh, eager and enthusiastic. At the finish, everyone is tired, red-faced, sweaty and gasping for air. It’s easy to start, but hard to finish. It’s easy to get discouraged along the way and quit. To just say enough and stop running. I cheer all the runners. Once a coach, always a coach. As soon as a runner hears an encouraging word, their head comes up and their pace quickens. The power of an encouraging word never ceases to amaze me. I always hang around and cheer for the person coming in last. They have persevered and finished the race and I want to praise them for it. If only we could do this in life. If only, like Paul, we didn’t hesitate to proclaim Christ to the world. How much more hope there would be in the world. My prayer today is for those with little hope. A gentleman was killed recently at the Creighton Medical Center in a shootout with police. By all accounts he was a good man who had lost hope. Lack of hope breeds despair and despair breeds acts of desperation. Those who are losing hope need to be encouraged and reassured how much God loves them. No matter how tough the race, with God’s love there is always hope. |